In recent years, grain elevators and feed mills have necessarily become increasingly efficient in their operations. Many customers of elevators and feed mills now operate on a “just-in-time” basis. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly important to minimize the duration of any elevator or mill downtime.
In the past, grain handling equipment manufacturers have manufactured downspouts which carried material downward, via gravity feed, from an elevated position. Typically, these downspouts were round and would wear out at their bottom surface because of the abrasion of the grain or other material flowing through the spout. Typically, these spouts would need to be rotated and/or replaced frequently, depending upon the nature of their use. One attempt to prolong the time between replacement of the downspouts has been to employ rectangular-shaped downspouts.
While these round and rectangular spouts have enjoyed much success and have been used extensively in the past, they do have some drawbacks.
First of all, the frequency of replacement or maintenance of these spouts has been less than desirable.
Secondly, maintenance, repair and/or replacement of these spouts often require considerable downtime for unloading, loading or transfer operations and depending upon the spout, may completely shut down the entire unloading operation while the replacement is performed.
Thirdly, because these downspouts are often very long and extremely heavy, they often require the use of a crane to support and lift the spouts.
The grain handling industry in particular has been primarily concerned with transporting, transferring, and storing grain. Other than measurement and classification of grain, little or no attempts have been made to address the problems associated with foreign matter in the grain. A typical scenario could have a farmer delivering corn to a grain elevator. Upon arrival, the incoming grain is assayed to determine several characteristics, which typically include moisture content and amount of foreign matter in the corn. If a farmer delivers grain with 4% foreign matter and 96% quality grain, a higher price per unit weight may be received than would be if the corn had 6% foreign matter and 94% quality corn. This assumes that a classification exists where corn of 95% or better receives a higher price than less than 95%. Typically, the assay is done on a container-by-container basis so the assay applies to all corn within the container. A farmer who delivers the 94% corn would like to somehow separate the corn, if possible, into two groups; corn of 95% or better and the lesser quality group. At least with this separation, the farmer is entitled to receive the higher price for at least a portion of the delivery.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for providing, maintaining, repairing and replacing equipment for delivering dry bulk material in an efficient manner, as well as improved methods and systems for separating grain into groups having differing percentages of foreign matter.